An electrical path in the valve body was broken, which I expected. A bronze sprag bushing thing for the front drum was seized onto its bearing surface, which I did not expect. I don't know if they are going to put in a new converter or not, I'll find out when I pay the bill I guess; I forgot to ask.

No idea what the bill is going to be; when you don't have a whole lot of choice, you just do what you gotta do.

It's back home. Golly I missed that car. I really really really like it.

Trans rebuild, new converter, some extra labour to deal with disassembly and that bronze bushing.

The old clutches looked mostly ok. One band had a dark stripe down the center. Probably good that we limped it to the shop right when we noticed an issue, vs. driving it until the shavings machined everything oversize.

Car is back at the transmission shop. Same P1757, same noises and stuff. Likely the solder repair on the valve body didn't hold (I suspect they just blobbed over the crack, no wire "bridge" giving it strength).

They are saying it needs a valvebody. I can understand their hesitance in "fixing" it again; no shop wants comebacks or warranty work. It's already come back. We gambled and lost, so they are recommending a new valvebody. That's $2000 and 3 weeks out of Japan, and then to the dealer for programming. Yay.

I'm starting to love this car less. No longer the screaming deal it once was, or the reasonable deal it became. I'm hoping the rest of it will last long enough to last as long as it needs to, to become the $1000/yr I need a car to be.

When I was in HS, late 80's, my future FIL got an 86 Century from a Dentist that had the 3800 in it. While that car road like a typical Buick it was surprisingly quick. We had some good times in that car.